of milan



Patented July 2, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. V

ANTONIO FERRETTI, OF MILAN, ITALY, ASSIGNOR TO SOCIETA INVENZIONI BREVET'II- ANONIMA-TORINO, or cream, ITALY.

PROCESS O]? TREATING SKIN PRODUCTS AND ARTICLE.-

No Drawing. Application filed August 21, 1925, Serial No. 51,682, and in Italy April 6, 1925.

This invention has for its principal object a process of treating or regenerating skin products such as nntanned hides, scraps and cuttings therefrom, tanned hides and scraps and cuttings therefrom.

From HIIBCOHOlTllCHl standpoint it will be appreciated that my invention. is of great value in that it utilizes, in its practice, materials, i. e. skin scraps andcuttings, scrap re leather, etc. which heretofore were generally merely converted into glues or fertilizers or thrown away entirely.

A source of untanned raw material is the hat making industry for example. In' this industry untanned skins are finely cut by means of special cutting machines, to provide on the one side the hair for hat manufacture, while the material obtained on the other side is referred to in the industry as skin cuttings. Up to the present time these skin cuttings have been used in the manufacture of glues and fertilizers or thrown away entirely.

A source of tanned skin products is in the manufacture of leather goods, such as boots and shoes for example, and numerous other leather goods, i. e. goods made from tanned skin products where there is a great quantity of scrap material which is thrown away and hence entirely wasted.

The present invention has for its principal object a new and advantageous utilization of such cuttings and scraps.

By my improved process I obtain a material similar, to natural leather, i. e. tanned skin products, and capable of being used as a substitute therefor.

By my improved process untanned skins, the cuttings or scraps of such skins, or tanned skins or leather scraps, as the case may be,

are first reduced to a fibrous condition.

More specifically the present invention provides a process, wherein the material in proper size is reduced in water in a suitable machine, such as a hollander, beater or J ordaning-machine, to a fibrous condition in which thefibers are of greater length than.

cross section and preferably to the point where the solution is uniform, i. e. free of lumps.

The defibering operation or reduction of the material being treated to a fibrous condition may be facilitated if found necessary or desirable by the addition of-acid or alkali solutions to the mass being treated or even by heating the water in which the delibering operat1on is performed.

When the skin product being treated has been sufficiently reduced either with or without the beater, hollander or J ordaning treat-- ment a water insoluble binder is added with the fibers in aqueous suspension. An exampleof a suitable binder is natural rubber latex, india rubber latex for example, or a synthetic binder having similar properties. The binder is then precipitated or coagulated. Tanning, currying and dyeing operations may be performed at any convenient stage of the process. j

In the next step of this process the mass is felted by placing the same on a metal web similar to that employed in paper making, removing the liquid and ,then pressing. This felting process may be facilitated by a jigging movement imparted to the metal web.

If desired the material thus obtained may then be vulcanized.

It will be seen, therefore, that by myimproved process for the treating of skin products a tanned, felted, and if desired, vulcanized material, is obtained consisting of animal fibers and a water insoluble binder. Such a new material while made up of untanned skins, skin cuttings, skin scraps, tanned skins, leather cuttings or leather scraps, as the case ma be, in appearance, fibrous texture, and flexibility, resembles natural leather, i. e. a tanned hide or a tanned skin product and is useful as a substitute for such natural leather.

In practice the details for realizing the process according to this invention may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. As an article of manufacture a leatherlike product comprisin tanned skin fibers and a latex rubber bin er, the fibers of the material being disposed in felted relation.

2. As an article of manufacture a vulcanized, tanned, felted sheet material comprising the fibers of animal skin material and a binder comprising a latex rubber.

3. In the process of treating animal skin material the steps which comprise adding a rubber latex to a thin flowing suspension of said material in defibered condition, effecting coagulation of the latex to coat the fibers with rubber and then felting the mass.

4'. The process of treating animal skinmaterial which comprises defibering the same in an aqueous medium to obtain an aqueous suspension of the fibrous portions thereof, adding a tanning agent and a rubber latex, and felting the mass.

5. The process of treating animal skin material which comprises defibering the mate- 6. In the treating of animal skin material i the step which consists in adding rubber latex to an aqueous suspension of the animal skin material in defibered condition.

7. The process which comprises converting animal skin material into a thin aqueous slurry containing the fibrous portions of the skin material in disassociated suspension, adding a latex and felting the mass into sheets.

8. The process of treating animal skin material which comprises reducing the same to a fibrous condition, adding a tanning agent and a rubber latex to the material while the same is in aqueous suspension and effecting felting of the mass.

9. In the treatingofanimal skin material the steps which comprise adding a rubber latex to an aqueous suspension of animal skin material in defibered condition and eifecting a coating of the fibers of the animal skin product with the rubber of the latex.

10. The process of treating animal skin material which comprises mechanically intimately admixing said material and an aqueous medium until the skin material is defibered and a thin flowing slurry of the fibrous portions thereof in aqueous suspension is obtained, adding a latex to the slurry, effecting coagulation of the latex and precpitation of the coagulation product thus obtained up 1 the individual fibers of the skin material eing treated, abstracting the liquids from said slurry under conditions giving a sheet of fibrous material, with the fibers thereof in felted relation and additionally bonded to each other by the rubber of the latex, and then compacting the material to the desired thickness.

11. As an article of manufacture a tanned, felted, fibrous material resembling leather in appearance and comprising the tanned fibers of animal skin material and a binder of rubber, the fibers being disposed in felted relation and composing the major fibrous portion of the material.

' 12. In the process of treating animal skin material, the steps which comprise adding a rubber binding agent as a dispersion in an aqueous medium to an aqueous suspension of defibered animal skin material, effecting a precipitation of the binding agent upon the fibers and then felting the mass.

ANTONIO FERRETTI. 

